In 1789, French peasants stormed the Bastille prison in Paris, beginning the French Revolution. The event is now commemorated as "Bastille Day," a national holiday in France.

In 1793, Jean Paul Marat, one of the most outspoken leaders of the French Revolution, was stabbed to death in his bath by Charlotte Corday, a Royalist sympathizer.

In 1914, Robert Goddard was granted the first patent for a liquid-fueled rocket design.

In 1933, all political parties except the Nazis were officially suppressed in Germany.

In 1966, eight nurses were found killed in Chicago. Drifter Richard Speck later was convicted of the slayings.

In 1991, Syrian President Hafez al-Assad accepted President Bush's compromise proposal for a Middle East peace conference.

In 1998, independent counsel Kenneth Starr subpoenaed a number of Secret Service agents to testify before a grand jury investigating President Clinton's alleged affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

In 1999, the European Union ended its 3-year ban on British beef imports. The ban had been prompted by fears of mad cow disease.

In 2000, a jury in Miami-Dade Co., Fla., ordered the tobacco industry to pay $144.8 billion to Florida smokers. It was the largest damage award in U.S. history.

Also in 2000, a panel concluded that federal officials were not liable in the deaths of the Branch Davidian members near Waco, Texas, in April 1993.

In 2003, a U.S. government source confirmed North Korea has begun reprocessing spent nuclear fuel rods, a step toward making more nuclear arms and a move almost certain to heighten the already tense relationship between the United States and North Korea.

Also in 2003, despite bad information that showed up in his State of the Union address, President George W. Bush said U.S. intelligence was "darn good."

In 2004, the U.S. Senate rebuffed efforts calling for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages.

Also in 2004, a British government committee concluded that British intelligence prior to the Iraq war had been "seriously flawed."

A thought for the day: Henri-Frederic Amiel said, "An error is the more dangerous the more truth it contains."

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